1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to printing systems, and more particularly to printing systems for printing characters in various formats onto webs of sheet stock of various widths, for cutting the web to various lengths to accommodate the various formats and for automatically stacking the tags after they are cut.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Printers capable of printing characters in various formats onto webs of various sizes are known. Such printers are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,372,696 and 4,442,774, incorporated herein by reference.
While prior art printers such as the ones described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,372,696 and 4,442,774 do provide a way to print characters of various formats onto various size webs of sheet stock, the printer of the present invention provides an improved method and apparatus for transporting and stacking the various size tags.
Printers of this type generally print the required information onto the web in the desired format and then cut the web into tags of a predetermined length containing one or more tag sections. For purposes of discussion each section thus cut will be referred to as a tag regardless of the number of tags actually printed on the section. The individual tags printed on each tag will be referred to as tag sections. Moreover, since the printer according to the invention is capable of printing onto various types of web stock including, for example, stock that can be cut into labels, cards or the like, the term tags is intended to cover sections cut from various web stock, and is not limited to merchandise tags.
In prior art printers such as the ones disclosed in the aforesaid U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,372,696 and 4,442,774, tags are generally printed in batches ranging from a few tags to hundreds of tags per batch. The printed tags are cut from a web of sheet stock and exit the printer through an exit chute, which may contain a conveyor, onto a conveyor belt of a stacker. By varying the operation of the conveyor belt, the tags can be stacked in piles or stacked in a shingle fashion wherein each tag only partially overlaps the previous tag much like roof shingles only partially overlap each other. However, the amount of overlap is not optimized for the various tags of different sizes that are produced by the printer, and bunching of tags at the mouth of the exit chute can occur when short tags, which exit the chute rapidly, or wide tags are produced.